Disciples, Apostles, and Saints!
In Lent, we’re reading these long gospels, including the visit with Nicodemus, the woman at the well, Jesus giving sight to the man born blind, and the resurrection of Lazarus. In one sense, these stories defy our expectations of a gospel passage that’s about ten to fifteen versus long. This week’s is forty-five! And yet what we receive from John is not snippets of moments, but whole stories, textured with detail and intricate themes.
And this year, I’m thinking about these Lenten themes of Jesus’s widening the circle, redeeming the lost, and bringing those on the outside of the movement in. If we recall the invitation to a holy Lent from the Ash Wednesday service, this is a big part of our work during this season: to prepare ourselves to widen our circle, to welcome and restore.
This week’s gospel is as much about pushing back on the people’s expectations of death and dying as it is a command to let go of them. This isn’t just about Lazarus in particular. It is about all of the fears and certainties that hold us back. That keep us obsessed with death — our own and our institutions.
Jesus arrives in the midst of our dread and outrage and bitter feelings of loss and how he should’ve tried harder to save us from this moment to say that this expectations is not based on faith at all. And, to be honest, it smells more of Satan’s temptation than of Jesus’s faith. No, Jesus comes to resurrect the dead. We are people, not of never dying, but of death and resurrection. This is the key to eternal life: that we learn to embrace death. As it is the only way to live. Again.
With love,
Drew+
